Belarus dropped from Munich Security Conference guest list

Berlin - Belarus will no longer be invited to attend next month's prestigious Munich Security Conference because of human rights violations by the Eastern European regime, conference host Wolfgang Ischinger said at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday.

The German diplomat said Iran, by contrast, may be given more prominence at the February 4-6 meeting.

Ischinger said he had called Belarus' foreign minister to protest against Aleksander Lukashenko's latest crackdown on opponents, which followed accusations that the country's authoritarian president had rigged the December 19 election.

A total of 350 participants are expected to attend the conference, including 12 heads of state or government and nearly 50 ministers. Among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, British Prime Minister David Cameron and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.